Thread: BREAKING: Arkansas: In-State Tuition Proposal Advances

Please read!!!!!!

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-151170.html

Busy day at the state capitol
Associated Press

(2009-03-25) A proposal to grant the children of illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates to Arkansas schools is headed to the Senate for a vote and setting up a showdown between its backer and the governor, who says it may violate federal law.

The proposal to grant in-state tuition rates to anyone who has attended an Arkansas school for at least three years and has a high school diploma was advanced Wednesday by the Senate Education Committee. Sen. Joyce Elliott says her proposal is needed to show compassion and to give children an opportunity at higher education.

"If we don't act, we will create a whole underclass of people in our state," Elliott told lawmakers last week.

But Gov. Mike Beebe says the proposal could violate federal law, and the state's higher education chief says it could end up costing state schools about $38 million.

The Senate Education Committee backed Elliott's proposal by a voice vote on Wednesday and it now heads to the Senate for a vote. The same committee rejected the proposal on Monday.

Elliott, D-Little Rock, later said that she probably would not bring the measure up for a vote in the Senate until next week and said she was still tallying support for the bill. The idea faced skepticism from senators during a rare "committee of the whole" meeting before the entire chamber last week.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuar/ ... ectionID=1

This horrible news is CONFIRMED!

I just received this from a Arkansas Senator that is on our side...

All bills have two chances of being voted out before a requirement of a rules suspension comes into effect. So the other day was the first time to fail. She fell one vote short the other day. She brought the bill up a second time in committee this morning and was able to get five votes, Sen. Hendren and I opposed. The bill goes to the Senate next.

when I asked when it may be voted on in the Senate or what this Senator thought the chances of passage were, they responded...

Could be tomorrow, could be next week, could be never. Have no feel for the Senate on it.

Everyone, please rush to complete your missions in NJ, CO, and Wisconsin.

You now only have this afternoon and tonight to fill those email boxes and voice mails in those states.

Early tomorrow morning, we are going back to Arkansas to finish this piece of crap legislation!

W

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

This horrible news is CONFIRMED!

I just received this from a Arkansas Senator that is on our side...

All bills have two chances of being voted out before a requirement of a rules suspension comes into effect. So the other day was the first time to fail. She fell one vote short the other day. She brought the bill up a second time in committee this morning and was able to get five votes, Sen. Hendren and I opposed. The bill goes to the Senate next.

when I asked when it may be voted on in the Senate or what this Senator thought the chances of passage were, they responded...

[quote:4jotopu3]Could be tomorrow, could be next week, could be never. Have no feel for the Senate on it.

Everyone, please rush to complete your missions in NJ, CO, and Wisconsin.

You now only have this afternoon and tonight to fill those email boxes and voice mails in those states.

Early tomorrow morning, we are going back to Arkansas to finish this piece of crap legislation!

W[/quote:4jotopu3]

The Acorns and the La Raza must be laundering a large chunk of money to some people. Of course, all at taxpayer expense. What a racket!

This thing is dirtier than we thought!

I just received this message from another Senator on our side!

Dear Mr. Gheen,

I was as surprised as you are. I left the education committee room for
a few minutes this morning to run a bill in another committee. When I
returned, I learned that SB799 had passed.

W

This is bill SB799
State of Arkansas As Engrossed: S3/24/09
2 87th General Assembly A Bill
3 Regular Session, 2009 SENATE BILL 799
4
5 By: Senators Elliott, Madison, Salmon, H. Wilkins
6 By: Representatives Rainey, T. Baker, Blount, Carroll, L. Smith
7
8
9 For An Act To Be Entitled
10 AN ACT TO INCREASE ACCESS TO POSTSECONDARY
11 EDUCATION; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
12
13 Subtitle
14 TO INCREASE ACCESS TO POSTSECONDARY
15 EDUCATION.
16
17
18 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS:
19
20 SECTION 1. The General Assembly finds that:
21 (1) There are children of undocumented immigrants who have lived
22 in Arkansas most of their lives;
23 (2) Most of these children have spent their formative years in
24 Arkansas elementary and secondary schools;
25 (3) Many of these children have proven their academic ability by
26 graduating from Arkansas high schools;
27 (4) Many of these children are precluded from accessing an
28 affordable college education because they do not qualify for in-state tuition
29 rates or state-supported scholarships;
30 (5) Educational opportunities should be offered to all children
31 so they may contribute to the future economic viability of Arkansas;
32 (6) There is a correlation between the number of residents with
33 a college degree and the economic health of the state;
34 (7) It is critical that Arkansas increase the number of
35 individuals living in the state that possess a college degree; and
36 ( It is the charge of Congress to address any burdensome laws
As Engrossed: S3/24/09 SB799
2 03-24-2009 08:15 SAG040
or regulations 1 that complicate the ability of the states to make
2 postsecondary education accessible to all young graduates.
3
4 SECTION 2. Arkansas Code Title 6, Chapter 60, Subchapter 2 is amended
5 to add an additional section to read as follows:
6 6-60-214. Access to postsecondary education.
7 (a) This act shall be known as the “Access to Postsecondary Education
8 Act of 2009â€

I had already posted when I got word she had received the information on the vote.

We'll be working on this starting NOW to keep it from passing with Senate vote. We knew Elliot was going to try to reintroduce it, but it occurred sooner that we thought it would.

I just sent this message back to a few of our friends in the AR Senate

Senators _________,

Thank you for your opposition to this bill. I am sorry to hear that below the belt procedural tricks were used to advance it.

Please stand up and speak out fervently against this bill as you can be assured that approximately 4 out of 5 Americans agree with your opposition.

From our experiences around the nation, if you can delay the vote in the full Senate long enough to get the word out by talk radio in the state and the Internet, the public backlash against the bill will usually put a stop to it.

To make sure that happens, we will help all we can, but we need leaders on the ground in the Arkansas Senate to mount up and rally the public against this bill quickly.

We plan to call all of our activists back from their current deployments in Colorado, New Jersey, and Wisconsin and direct them back to the Arkansas Senate early Thursday morning.

Help is on the way!

Please do all you can.

Sincerely,

William Gheen
Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC)
www.alipac.us

http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/...s_state_budget University of Arkansas has seen a $5 million budget cut in 2008, and predictions for 2010 are for $147 million deficit in the state budget. So lets just reduce their possibility of earning income from the seats they fill by giving in-state tuition to illegals. Did Ms Elliot fail basic arithmetic?

Some of the Senators are encouraging us not to label what happened in the Higher Education Committee as underhanded or below the belt as the maneuver was within the rules of the committee.

I have responded with this.

Senator ________,

I certainly understand your point. But in our book, anytime elected officials in America vote against 80% of the public to reward illegal aliens at the expense of innocent American students and taxpayers, we consider that underhanded and below the belt.

Procedurally, every Arkansas citizens deserves to know how each member of the committee voted on this highly unpopular and outrageous bill.

William Gheen
www.alipac.us